What do you do to induce a creative frame of mind? I have tried oblique strategies but it isn’t doing much for me. I’ve done enough drugs for one lifetime so that isn’t the answer either.
I went through a period of quite prolific songwriting during and after a manic episode but it’s died down just as I was beginning to get good. Would be grateful for any hints and tips - what works for you?
Bump
>what works for you?
I fuck your mother in the ass then blow a load all over her face and tits.
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I can't stop watching this gif.
Try drugs OP
Desperation and deadlines.
Although as a writer I am not quite sure how it works for music, coming up with ideas is the most simple part for me, the tricky one is, picking one and expanding on it. If you're serious about it and not just doing music as a hobby, just cut off distractions, shut up and get to work, and don't do anything else until you're progressed at least a bit.
I’m very new to this, which is most likely why I lack discipline. When I was manic two lines of a song and the melody would pop into my head seemingly at random, then I would write the complete song in about fifteen minutes and feel like a genius. That was symptomatic of my mania though.
I’ll try your approach user - I do have a concept for an album which is promising.
You have to live and experience things to create art. Your mind needs time to process events and then it comes out as art. Just don't take it too seriously is really the best advice I can give you
Thanks user.
Ah, yeah, then it's understandable. Getting into the work flow and making it somewhat of a routine is one of the harder steps, so keep in mind, that the more material you have, the easier it is to see what works and what doesn't and of course expanding on the good bits. Besides, it helps motivating you to be productive later. After you wrote 50 songs, writing 10 more won't feel nearly as challenging.
At least from the artists I know, most have about a 90-10 ratio of unreleased-released stuff, it's similar with movies too, where hours end up on the cutting room floor.
>Your mind needs time to process events and then it comes out as art.
It never hurts to write down the initial feels, and then a more refined version from the scratch.
Aye, with the benefit of restored sanity I am starting to realise how shit some of the stuff I wrote was and am not feeling bad about scrapping it. Here’s my first song (cheesy country style), for the keks:
They say it's better to have loved and lost
But I ain't so convinced
The way that you've been treating me honey
My head's been turned to mince
The moment you walked out that door
I swore you were a lowly whore
But baby, I long to see your face
I try to sleep in our old bed
Where I think about you
You sure did mess with my poor head
And you enjoyed it too
To think of it just makes me sigh
Yet that still does not answer why
That baby, I long to see your face
I think of all the times I tried
To keep you satisfied
I couldn't even get that far
With Satan on my side
You may have took me for a ride
But my true feelings I can't hide
Yes baby, I long to see your face
Now I’ve been mad and I’ve been mean
I said you ain't no beauty queen
I even said you made me want to die
Now I know that I was too rash
I guess I did smoke too much hash
And baby, I long see your face
Try adderall if you haven't. Don't take it often, but every once in a while take it and see what it does for your writing. For me it just unlocks everything and ideas flow out like crazy.
The two bits in the middle got a cringe-y charm about them tbqh.
Consume art like crazy. Be it going to museums, reading good books, watching good movies or series or anything like that, hell, even listening to a lot of music helps. You start to find new ways to represent things you hadn't thought of how, and you can translate them better musically. Don't turn down art because you don't like it, or it turns you away. It's ok to not like stuff, but the more stuff you can recognize as art the more art you can create.
It’s cheesy as fuck but I have a soft spot for it. Wouldn’t dare play it at an open night mic but I think for a first song it could be worse.
I'm not this guy but he reminded me of this Bob Dylan quote about what you need to do to be a good songwriter:
"If you like someone's work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to."
Good posts, I'd only add "analysing your reaction and being able to tell why you like/dislike certain stuff"
If you fundimentally don't have creativity you never will. You can have it and struggle to get it back because of stress, anxiety, pussy, drugs, depression, not being yourself, but if you are creative it'll always be there you just aren't using it or able to use it at the time being
But if it isn't there to start with it never will be. But If you need I'd say try to figure out what's different no vs when you had your period of creativity.
I am confident I have it and always have, just tapping into it during weaker periods is the difficult bit.
I'd suggest then finding out why. I know I"m in a similar situation, but I don't have anyone or anything pushing me/I'm also very depressed but I'd suggest figuring out why your not. Maybe you're depressed and don't realize it.
I’m pretty creative but don’t create much myself. I find that allowing my thoughts to freely flow and doing lots of research on things helps me come up with ideas, and observing the world around me and my own reaction to it. I like stream of consciousness stuff sometimes. I don’t really know what to tell you because our brains all work in different ways and have unique chemistry. Isn’t that incredible? It’s like we each have our own little world.
Was Dylan really this way because of heroin or did he have a goofy easy going personality too? I know he was obstinate in some ways but it’s interesting observing his behavior during that era.
I'd recommend a short book called 'the war of art' by Steven Pressfield.
Aye, I need to start reading more. One thing I learnt from Dylan’s songwriting is that your muse can come from even the banal:
>Brains in the pot, they’re beginning to boil
>They’re dripping in garlic and olive oil
That last line and several others came from a tourist guide to New Orleans. I love that.
if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money or
fame,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
if you’re trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.
don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.
Have bought it, cheers for recommendation.
Dreaming helps
Oh, one thing I remembered that I ought to mention is that Oblique Strategies does REALLY help when you're stuck, and you can use cut-up writing to help you if you're ever stuck.
I’ll give it another shot next time I am stuck. Is there anything else similar to it?
Substituting one word can dramatically change an idea brought by your lyrics, and the same applies to your music - change one note and suddenly the whole thing feels different.
For any Bob Dylan fans Theme Time Radio Hour is a treasure trove of this stuff.
you need something to express and say
i think it was the pot
stay manic.
Do exercise and get enough sleep.